WPIX
CW television affiliate in New York City
WPIX (channel 11), branded PIX 11, is a television station in New York City, serving as the de facto flagship of The CW. The station is owned by Mission Broadcasting and operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, which is the network's parent company. Since its inception in 1948, WPIX has maintained studios and offices in the Daily News Building on East 42nd Street (also known as "11 WPIX Plaza") in Midtown Manhattan. The station's transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.
WPIX is also available as a regional superstation via satellite and cable in the United States and Canada. It is the largest Nexstar-operated station by population of market size.
History
As an independent station (1948–1995)
The station first signed on the air on June 15, 1948; it was the fifth television station to sign on in New York City and was the market's second independent station. It was also the second of three stations to launch in the New York market during 1948, debuting one month after Newark, New Jersey–based independent WATV (channel 13, now PBS member station WNET) and two months before WJZ-TV (channel 7, now WABC-TV). WPIX's call letters come from "New York's Picture ("PIX") Newspaper", the nameplate slogan of its founding owner, the New York Daily News. The Daily News's partial corporate parent was the Chicago-based Tribune Company, publishers of the Chicago Tribune.
Until becoming owned outright by Tribune in 1991, WPIX operated separately from the company's other television and radio outlets (including WGN-TV in Chicago, which signed on two months before WPIX in April 1948) through the News-owned license holder, WPIX, Incorporated—which in 1963, purchased New York radio station WBFM (101.9 FM) and soon changed that station's call sign to WPIX-FM and then to WQCD in 1988.
“WPIX” enters the record as cW television affiliate in New York City. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what WPIX, television and affiliate can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“WPIX” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, WPIX, television and affiliate provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3068955. Authority coordinates are 40.748, -73.986. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1995, 1991 and 1963.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “WPIX”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow WPIX primary sources, WPIX archive and WPIX research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “WPIX”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “WPIX” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.